If you have eaten a little Thai food, you know that Thai herbs impart flavors to the cuisine that stimulate your palate, warm your gut and well, just make you happy. Thai people understand the culinary and medicinal uses of plants (and animals) in a way that my own people from the colder latitudes of North America do not.When I lived in Thailand, I happily accepted daily advice from family, friends and the kindly strangers sitting next to me on plastic stools at the noodle cart. They all wanted to tell me what to eat. When to eat it. Why it would be so good for me.Knowledge of Thai herbs and their uses, both culinary and medicinal, is deeply engrained in Thai culture.Walk the sidewalks of any Thai town, and you can also follow your nose to the nearest Thai massage shop. The scent of steamed Thai herbs drifts into the street. Lemongrass, turmeric, galangal, ginger,

kaffir lime, and camphor are bundled together in little muslin compresses, then steamed and worked slowly into your muscles and joints. It’s brilliant.

In Thailand, you need not book yourself in to a posh spa for a traditional herbal treatment. Even modest massage shops offer steamed herbal massage and, if you are lucky, an herbal sauna. These humble little saunas will transform you with the magic of herbal steam. Drink it into your lungs, and let it open your pores hydrating you with its gentle dew.

Many years ago on my first trip to Thailand, I found myself in the back of a pick-up truck being toured about by three friendly Buddhist monks. I was headed for my first herbal sauna (I just didn’t know it).

I had taken an interest in temple life and been invited on a tour of the local area. My hosts spoke a tiny bit of English. At that time I spoke no Thai at all, so where we were going, for how long and why were unknowable. Our driver, not a monk of course, took us to temples and view points. I adopted the exceedingly polite and reserved posture required of women in the company of Thai monks. I kept my head lower than theirs, I sat at a polite distance and I walked behind them having been in the country long enough to know the custom.

Our last stop of the day was, not surprisingly, another temple. This one had a traditional Thai medicine clinic. Because Thai medicine treats body, mind and spirit, clinics are often found on temple grounds.

I am a Thai massage therapist, and my guides in robes had saved the best for last. Under an open pavilion several massage therapists were at work with clients on low bamboo cots. The herbal medicine doctor had just left for the day, a big disappointment to my hosts. But, all was not lost. They gestured toward a small cinderblock building with a white rubber curtain for a door. The herbal steam sauna.

While three Thai monks waited in the Temple yard, I donned a batik sarong and rubber flip flops and pulled back the curtain. It was completely black and so steamy that I couldn’t see more than a few inches from my nose. And it was hot. Really hot and deeply fragrant. Not wanting to offend (or look like a wimp), I tried to stay put in the heat. I really did. Thankfully one of the monks came to check on me and asked, from a respectable distance, if it was hot. Then someone came and tucked the curtain around my pink face so I could catch a breath of air.

It was weird and wonderful, and I was thoroughly hooked.

Back in the cold latitudes, I decided to make my own humble sauna. With a typical Thai can-do attitude, I made a tiny tent. Copying a simple tent sauna I had seen, I stitched up a cotton cubicle, just tall enough for a seated person and not much wider than your big boyfriend’s shoulders. A little ingenuity combined with a sewing machine, and you could have one too.

Does my little steam tent give a deep sweat like that cinderblock hut? Not really, but it does bathe me in gorgeous, relaxing herbal steam. I sit with a rice cooker of herbs bubbling at my feet and remember all those humble sauna huts which have made me so deeply happy.

Thai Herbal Steam Bath Step-by-Step

Shower and skip the towel dry

Rub Thai herbal exfoliating scrub into your wet skin (no rinsing!)

Step into your steam tent for about 10 minutes

Rinse with lukewarm water and hydrate with warm lemongrass tea

Steam bathe a second time

When finished, air dry (no shower, no soap)

Let the herbal fragrance linger on your skin for at least 2 hours

(And, Thai food for dinner!)

No sewing machine? Make a stove-top mini sauna. Lean over a gently steaming pot of herbs with a bath towel for your tent. It's a simple facial cleanse and great decongestant.

Remember, herbal steam is not recommended during pregnancy or for people with fever or heart disease.

Recipes

Thai Herbal Exfoliating Scrub3/4 Cup Raw Thai Jasmine Rice2 T. Dried Lemongrass2 T. Baking Soda2 T. Powdered Ginger1 T. Sea SaltCoconut OilPound the raw jasmine rice in a mortar or grind in a food processor to a coarse powder. Set aside in a medium bowl. Gently grind the lemongrass to a coarse powder. Add it and remaining dry ingredients to bowl. Warm coconut oil gently to melt and work in into dry ingredients with your fingertips using just enough to form a thick paste.

Put 3 inches of water in a rice cooker and place it in steam tent on high heat, uncovered. Add 1 ounce each of herbal ingredients. Begin with firm roots, barks and seeds and cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Add softer herbs and cook 5 minutes more. Add flowers last and begin steam bathing.Substitute essential oils for hard to find ingredients.

Thai Herbal Steam Workshops in New York and Maine

Join me at an upcoming workshop. Make your own steam tent (and take it home!). Learn about the therapeutic effects of Thai herbs and local substitutions. Experience radiant, dewy health. Full details and upcoming workshop dates in Classes.